


the sun

by dryadfiona



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Domestic, Established Relationship, F/F, Los Angeles, Moving In Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:42:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23249422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dryadfiona/pseuds/dryadfiona
Summary: Chloe loves their new apartment. Rachel doesn't seem to.
Relationships: Rachel Amber/Chloe Price
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	the sun

On the drive down to LA, Rachel reads passages from plays out loud to Chloe.

"'It is the east, and Juliet is the sun,'" Rachel recites, and Chloe snorts.

"Didn't he just meet her?"

"Yeah," Rachel says, rolling her eyes, "But that's not the point! Romeo and Juliet isn't even a love story."

"You're fucking with me," Chloe says, focus only half on the conversation. She's never seen roads so busy--the closer they get to California, the more she hasn't actually seen.

"No, it's a tragedy," Rachel says, putting the book down in her lap, using her finger to hold her place. "The story's less about how two teenagers fell in love, and more about how two teenagers couldn't give their infatuations a shot because of stupid family drama. Maybe they wouldn't have lasted, but maybe they _would_. They never get to know."

"That is sad," Chloe agrees.

"I like to think it would have," Rachel says, and holds out a hand for Chloe.

"Babe, I'd love to hold your hand, but I am actually driving right now."

Rachel sighs dramatically, and puts a hand on Chloe's thigh, instead.

"No, that's not--Rachel."

* * *

The drive, not including stops for food and sleep and _not_ sleep, is 14 hours long. Chloe's back is killing her, because the truck, as much as she loves it, isn't exactly comfortable. Her neck hurts, she feels like she could pass out, and she's hungrier than she's been in a _long_ time.

She's never been happier.

They're both beaming as they pull up to the complex where their new apartment is, some place far from anything and cheap enough for them because of it. Still, it's nice--their place is on the third floor, above a bookstore and some tiny diner.

She starts to rethink the third floor being _nice_ when, four trips in, she nearly drops her snowglobe collection down the stairs. She catches herself at the last second.

"Fuck!" she says, and someone walking into the bookstore below shoots her a nasty look.

Rachel frowns up at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just glad I didn't drop this," Chloe says, continuing up the stairs. Behind her, the frown stays on Rachel's face.

All-in-all, it takes ten trips for them to bring all the boxes from the truck to upstairs. None of their furniture's been delivered yet, either, so there's nothing to do but unpack and sit on the dusty floor.

Rachel looks annoyed.

"What's up?" Chloe asks. "Did something break?"

"No, I just--" Rachel sighs. "I sort of pictured everything being--done. You know? Like we would get to here and all our furniture would be here and assembled and placed, and we could just unpack one or two boxes and be done."

Chloe's never moved before, other than this, so she had vaguely felt the same way, but she's not--upset, really. She doesn't mind this--building her new life with the pieces of her old one that she felt like keeping.

"I guess," Chloe says, still unused to comforting people.

"It's dumb," Rachel mutters, and doesn't say anything else.

* * *

By the time night falls, they're both irritable and starving, so they try and order delivery and remember they don't know _anything_ nearby.

Rachel groans and goes to lie facedown on the mattress, which had arrived while they were unpacking. Chloe decides to try and do something sweet, so she gets onto Doordash and orders some burgers from In-N-Out, remembering a new-to-Oregon Rachel bemoaning the lack of them. She orders twice what they'd normally eat, because the fridge is working and Chloe figures ordering something might be harder at 8am than 8pm.

When the guy knocks on the door, he doesn't even make a face at the complete chaos behind Chloe. She tips him an extra $3. 

"Rachel?" Chloe calls, trying to hold two bags of food and two drinks.

"Here," Rachel calls.

"Yeah, I know, I can't get the door," Chloe says.

Rachel opens the door, the confused look on her face instantly lighting up when she sees the logo. She grabs one of the bags so quickly that Chloe nearly drops one of the drinks, and Rachel mouths _sorry_ and grabs the drink more slowly. 

They both sit on the mattress (sans any sheets, because neither of them remembered which box they'd been packed in and didn't feel like opening every single box to find out) and eat, trying not to get cheese on it. Chloe's in a much better mood and Rachel's in a marginally better one, and the two talk about their plans.

"I'm gonna try and get modeling gigs when I can," Rachel says. "I mean, not that I'll have much time with school, but I figure the money'll help."

Chloe snorts. "Your scholarship already basically covers rent here, Blackwell valedictorian."

"But more experience can't hurt," Rachel says stubbornly. 

Chloe nods. "I'm just glad I was able to find a job."

"You sent him a video of that bust-up old truck--"

"Hey!"

"--and told him you'd fixed it up from a _literal_ junkyard. He was _always_ gonna hire you!" 

"It's not that impressive," Chloe mutters. "It wasn't even that old."

"Yeah, but now it, like, can do more than just drive at barely-legal standards."

Chloe's face feels warm, and she takes an unreasonably large bite of the burger to compensate for it. 

* * *

The two of them pass out before they get back to unpacking, so tired from the drive and the moving things and just moving in general, and Chloe wakes up before Rachel, still fully clothed, curled up into her girlfriend, no sheets on the mattress.

The sunlight from the room's one window streams onto both of them, and Chloe thinks maybe that's why she's up so early. She should put her flag up in the window, block the light a bit, still allowing some to flow in. Rachel hasn't woken up yet, though, and Chloe looks at her face, always more serious in sleep than she is during the day. 

Rachel does eventually wake up, blinking her eyes against the sunlight.

"Hey," Chloe says.

"Hey," Rachel says back, lips curving into a small, unguarded smile. She's like this in the morning.

"You feeling better?" Chloe asks.

"I was fine yesterday," Rachel says, confused.

"You seemed...annoyed, I don't know." 

"I just..." Rachel sighs, shifts a little closer to Chloe. "You know, when I pictured moving, I pictured it as, like, the last step. That everything would be figured out and we'd be happy. And then we got here, and we had to move all our stuff, and it wasn't ready, and obviously I still have to do college, and your job is gonna be a lot, too, and I--"

"Hey," Chloe interrupts, and Rachel sends her the same slightly irritated, slightly fond look she does every time Chloe interrupts her. "We're gonna be fine, you know that?"

"I wanted us to be _more_ than fine," Rachel says. "I wanted us to be good! Done!"

"We're not gonna be _done_ for a long time," Chloe snorts. "But now we have an entire other city to terrorize."

Rachel snorts. "True."

"And you've got a full ride to a great school and I've got a job with a boss who thinks I can fix _anything_ , apparently," Chloe says, and Rachel's worried face smooths out a little. "We'll be okay."

Rachel doesn't respond, but the sunlight in her eyes seems to sparkle a little more. "Yeah. We'll be okay."


End file.
